Nelly Boys from Fifth Grade

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Fifth and sixth grades I spent at the Eli Whitney Elementary School. In one of both of those years Larry and Barry were my classmates. They were identical twins.

Walking down the street one day shortly after my eighteen birthday I ran into Larry and Barry. That each boy was the mirror image of the other wasn’t the only thing that made the pair recognizable. They’d aged but looked like larger editions of their elementary school selves.

Two boys, blonde, beautiful and very nelly. We exchanged a few meaningless words. I walked on never to see them again.

I’ve wished and wondered if I could have brought the meeting to a different outcome.

But I was freshly queer. I’m not sure if I’d finished shedding teenage fat. Wound up with the scruffy look that recollection has shown me was something boys found appealing (wrongly thinking me a bad boy).

I had no game. Not that I ever really do. My approach was looking at a boy signalling interest. Either he made the first approach or we never met. That sound arrogant. It was timid. People were opaque, baffling, untrustworthy. That is how I felt when young. Thankfully I got over that.

Any when I met Larry and Barry I’d yet to discern that it was the swishy, femme boys who thrilled me most.

There are always boys you wished you’d been able to fuck. This would have been a neat way to shed my virginity. In stereo.